The Aga Khan Award is awarded in recognition of architecture and infrastructure projects that demonstrate design excellence, but also address the needs and aspirations of societies where Muslims have a significant presence.

The 19 selected projects cover 14 different countries, including Senegal, Kosovo and Jordan. They include three projects in Iran, where the gradual lifting of economic sanctions is paving the way for a generation of young architects to find work.

They were chosen from a longlist of 348, by a panel of judges that included architects Emre Arolat and Dominique Perrault, as well as Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Design, and Columbia University philosophy professor Akeel Bilgrami.

A team of architects, conservation specialists and structural engineers will now visit each of the projects and produce a detailed assessment. The judges will use these reports to decide which projects might be given a share of the $1 million (£700,000) prize.